The present invention relates to the field of devices for feeding animals, and more particularly to devices which are hung on a tree or supported on a pole for feeding relatively small birds, such as finches, chickadees, blue birds etc. without waste of the feed.
While the prior art encompasses numerous devices for automatically dispensing feed to fowl, such devices have numerous defects and disadvantages which are obviated by the present invention. The following United States patents are exemplary of such prior art devices: U.S. Pat. No. 2,464,644 to Kwosh; U.S. Pat. No. 2,667,858 to Cussotti; U.S. Pat. No. 2,804,844 to Gigliotti; U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,665 to Hefner; U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,112 to Fenner et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,388 to Kilham; U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,847 to Coffer; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,257 to Park. All prior art devices above involved too many parts, and the process of the assembly and disassembly during cleaning and/or repair is complicated and hard. Some of them also require tools to be assembled and disassembled.
The present invention overcomes these deficiencies and disadvantages in that it provides a new and improved bird feeder that involves less parts and can be easily and quickly assembled and disassembled without any tools.
The present invention provides an animal feeding device that is particularly usable for feeding birds and which includes a container which defines a food reservoir for holding food to be automatically dispensed therefrom.
The animal feeding device preferably comprises three basic components, namely, a hollow dome-shaped container for holding food; a food dispensing tray for dispensing and holding food comprising a peripheral skirt and a central portion with a plurality of food dispensing channels around that extends upwardly from the tray into the lower extremity of the hollow dome-shaped container so as to close off the bottom of the hollow dome-shaped container and to provide a plurality of food dispensing openings; and a chain or rope for supporting or suspending the feeding device.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a bird feeder device wherein less component parts are involved than other general type of bird feeders, and the essential component parts are simplified and are easily and quickly assembled, disassembled, and replaced without using any tool.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a bird feeder device which dispenses food automatically without undue waste and can be inexpensively constructed mostly from beverage containers which are normally disposed of as solid waste.
These objects as well as other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent after reading the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.